Hearing looks at options for Northeast rail service

Published 10:23 pm, Monday, December 14, 2015

Michael Piscitelli, deputy economic development administrator for New Haven.

Michael Piscitelli, deputy economic development administrator for New Haven.

Photo: Ed Stannard — New Haven Register

Hearing looks at options for Northeast rail service

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NEW HAVEN >> Something must be done to upgrade rail service along the Northeast Corridor in Connecticut, but not so much that the environment would be threatened or that the costs would outweigh the benefits, said those who testified at a Federal Railroad Administration hearing Monday.

The FRA held its second public hearing on its “NEC Future” project at Gateway Community College, seeking comments on four possible alternatives (including a “no action” plan) for upgrading the rail lines that run between Boston and Washington, D.C. The plan stretches out to 2040 and a final environmental-impact statement will be released in fall 2016.

The project is significant because 21 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product is generated in the Northeast United States, according to a video presentation. None of the alternatives is inexpensive. The “no action” alternative, which would include only those projects needed to keep the railroads running, still would cost $20 billion, according to the FRA.

Most of those who spoke favored “Alternative 1,” which, among other things, would add two tunnels under the Hudson River and build a new segment of tracks between Old Saybrook and Kenyon, Rhode Island, with a station in the New London-Mystic area. It would cost about $65 billion.

Paige Bronk, economic and community development administrator for the town of Groton, said, “We are watching the overall process (and) at this time we are leaning toward Alternative 1,” while “Alternatives 2 and 3 seem fairly costly.”

Alternative 2, priced at about $135 billion, would include a full upgrade to the line between New Haven and Hartford, continuing on to the University of Connecticut in Storrs and then to Providence. The $290 billion Alternative 3, which “transforms the role of rail,” according to the FRA, would include a new route under Long Island Sound from Ronkonkoma, New York, to New Haven and a new “spine” between New York and Boston through Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford and Worcester, Massachusetts.

Thomas Griggs Sr. of Orange, looking at the FRA’s displays before the hearing, called Alternative 1 realistic but said of the third choice, “That won’t happen in my grandson’s lifetime.”

Joseph Sweeney of Manchester, who said his grandfather worked on coal-fired train engines, said that, despite the need for some new roadways in Connecticut, “If you compare our public highway system with our railway passenger system, our passenger systems gets close to an F or D-minus.”

Gaudio said that “the benefits, both financial and environmental, seem to favor Alternative 1.”

She added, “We are looking primarily at the environmental impacts and balancing them with the financial cost of everything and we just see Alternative 3 as being overly destructive to the environment.”

Michael Piscitelli, New Haven’s deputy economic development administrator, noted that the city is attracting more rail riders because of its transformation “from a traditional manufacturing economy to one that is knowledge-based” and called for “more specific attention to what is happening to these core cities.”

Richard Carella of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce said of Alternative 1, “We think it’s a bigger bang for the buck right out of the gate.” He asked that Shore Line East, which runs between New Haven and New London, be made “more accessible and more resilient.”

The only person who spoke up for the second alternative was Carl Amento, executive director of the South Central Regional Council of Governments, who said both the first and second choices “seem to be getting at a sweet spot between doing nothing, which would be a tremendous mess” and Alternative 3, which would be visionary but be too expensive and too damaging to the environment.

Richard Jacob, Yale University’s associate vice president for federal and state relations, said, “We do see rail as being very important to moving students and faculty in and out of campus” and added that in the Northeast, “without seeming too egocentric, I think we do view New Haven as a hub,” with businesses expanding east from New York and others growing on the shoreline.

Another official supporting the first option was Ginny Kozlowski of REX Development, a nonprofit that supports economic development in Greater New Haven, who said, “Our goal for this region is to have 1.6 million riders by 2030.” Now, 750,000 riders per day ride the rails along the entire Northeast Corridor, according to the FRA.

Union Station is a Top 10 station on the line, serving 700,000 riders per year.